TI-99/4A support

[ballo]

I've been butting my head for days trying to get a TI-99/4A game to run.

I first tired RetroArch since that's what I use for SNES games. Apparently there isn't a single person in the universe who has ever gotten that combo to work. There isn't even a MAME folder that I can find anywhere. All information in the internet is based on Windows and the folder locations are all over the place and incongruent.

I then tried Classic99 which is a windows app that runs like crap using the WINE/Rosetta2 combo. It actually does run the game but it's completely unusable.

I then tried MAME4mac from this repository. It can import and run this very limited romset if you want to play a crappy version of PONG:

http://ftp.whtech.com/System%20ROMs/MAME/ti99_complete.zip

However when I try to add The Attack:

https://ftp.whtech.com/Cartridges/MAME/rpk/the_attack.rpk

I get a generic "Software" category and then a prompt to choose which "System" to play it. There is no TI-99/4A option.

I tried other versions of the same title but none of them would even import. There was no error when importing, but also no title to click on the main display.

Several days into this and I don't feel any closer to getting anything to run properly.

[ToddLa]

Sounds like the romset for ti99 is not installed. The fact that M4i asked you to pick a system means it is trying to play it, but the ROMs are missing.

I dont know the exact files ti99 games need off top of head....

[ToddLa]

You should install/import ti99.zip

[ballo]

I got further by using the-attack.zip with the romset I already had, but it refuses to acknowledge jawbreak.zip. I suspect I'd need a way to manually load it like regular MAME.

[ToddLa]

You can always run the MAME UX and select it, like an animal.

[ballo]

I got one ROM to work, but when I try others it prompts me to "Select a System to play" but the TI-99 isn't an option. I'm not sure why one ROM knows how to use the appropriate "Computer" (using the MAME4Mac terminology) but another ROM is left in the lurch. It's really frustrating because this is the only emulator that runs half decently for emulating this system

[ballo]

OK, I finally got it to work. I had to:

1. Figure out where the heck MAME4Mac put files. It's in ~/Library/Containers/com.example.mame4ios/Data/Documents/roms/ (although if you look for this in the Finder the folder name "com.example.mame4ios" presents itself as MAME4Mac. Not sure why)
2. Manually add the ROM in the correct folder (in my case ~/Library/Containers/com.example.mame4ios/Data/Documents/roms/ti99_cart)

It works now! Audio is a little frazzled but works better than any other Ti-99 emulator I've tried